ESCAPE ATTEMPT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20132, 29 December 1939, Page 2

ESCAPE ATTEMPT

CRIMINALS IN SYDNEY PRISONERS’ RUSE PROMPT RECAPTURE SYDNEY, Dec. 20. Two long-term criminals failed in a desperate attempt to escape from Parramatta Gaol, near Sydney. They were Frank Jones, aged 24, known as “The Hooded Bandit,” serving a life sentence for attempted murder, and are habitual criminal named Burns. The prisoners had been decorating the gaol chapel for Christmas. A lorry was about to pass through the gaol gates. The gate-keepers, Warders Murphy and Fairburn, had given the all-clear signal. The .two men suddenly ran from the chapel. One of the warders was hit over the head with a piece of iron piping. The two prisoners then ran through the gates into the street. Murphy and Fairburn gave chase. One of the wall sentries fired on the escaping men, but none of his shots was effective. The prisoners were overtaken after a chase, and returned to cells.

The Minister of Justice, Mr. Treatt, said: “The whole thing was cleverly planned, and a very cunning attempt to escape. It would have succeeded had not three warders off duty been standing by the gates. One prisoner was immediately caught and the other was recaptured shortly afterward.”

Frank Jones was called the “Hooded Bandit” because he wore a hood over his head during hold-ups. He held up two shopkeepers, a railway employee at a suburban station, and committed about 20 house robberies in a little over a month in 1935. He accidentally set alight to explosives in a shed at Concord quarry, and was badly injured. He was arrested, and for days his life and eyesight were despaired of. In 193 G Jones was sentenced to death for the shooting at the station, the judge stating that. Jones was "a menace to society.” The death sentence was commuted two days before Jones was to be hanged.